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Copyright Workshop at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM)

Terry Kristensen

Imagine Dr. Robert Gilmour’s surprise when he was told he would have to pay $400 to use a chart that was part of an article that he had written.  The fee would go to the journal that now owns the rights to that article—rights it had gained at the time Gilmour signed a contract with the journal to publish it. 

With this story, Gilmour, the associate dean for research and graduate education, opened the Copyright Workshop held at the College of Veterinary Medicine on June 21.  The workshop, which was attended by approximately sixty faculty members, began with an overview of the Cornell University intellectual property policy, by Patricia McClary, associate university counsel.  She noted that copyright in much of the material produced by faculty belongs to them.

Next, Peter Hirtle, the CUL intellectual property officer, pointed out that most authors transfer their copyright to the publishing journal without even being aware that there is an alternative.  He then explored ways in which authors can retain at least some of their rights through the use of author addenda designed to address specific copyright situations.

Erla Heyns, the director of the Veterinary Library, encouraged the faculty to “store their stuff” by submitting reports of their research funded by the National Institutes of Health to the PubMed Web site in support of CVM’s goal of high compliance.  She also pointed out the advantages of storing their articles in DSpace, emphasizing that negotiating copyright or choosing a publisher who is friendly to open access makes that possible.

Regarding course reserves, Patricia reviewed the current complaint raised by publishers over some faculty practices.  The response by the Library will be a series of guidelines designed to ensure that materials are used correctly within the limits of the copyright law.  Meanwhile, Peter presented some guidelines that faculty can use now in placing items on reserve for their courses.

A lively question-and-answer session followed in which many specific questions were addressed.  At one point, John Saylor, the interim AUL for scholarly communication, asked the audience how many of them had published articles (almost all) and how many had read the copyright component of the contract they signed (two).  It is likely that this situation will change in the near future because of the information gained through this workshop!

The workshop was the result of collaboration between the Veterinary Library and the CVM Department of Research.  Erla Heyns, Susanne Whitaker, and Michael Friedman met with Judy Wood, from the CVM Department of Research, to determine a way to increase submissions to the National Institutes of Health.  The need to understand copyright issues in general became apparent—and the plan for the workshop was born.

The same workshop will be presented on September 21 for those who were unable to attend the first one.

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